Calaak Vaal
Calaak Vaal is a pirate of the X Universe, and a short character in Christopher Docketts 'The Resurrection', a Fan-story not yet released. The book will be released early-mid 2008. It is not known whether it will be for free, or professionally published. It is the first of the 'Inquisitor' series. The book, or more the series, follows the events during the mission of the Ship 'The Inquisitor', an Argon Titan-class starship on a secret mission to find lesser, more undiscovered civilizations and recruit them under the Argon faction, due to pressing concerns that the Paranid, Boron and Taladi may be allying for war against the Argon. Calaak Vaal, a Pirate and an Argon by birth, is first seen in Chapter 4. The Inquisitor, now under command of captain Richard Jackson, is in the Elena's Fortune sector at an Argon Free Trading Station when the entire station comes under attack from five vessels. The computer announces that all weapons have been disabled by a plasma-encasing field and that any ships capable of defending are advised to aid. Jackson orders the Inquisitor to abandon maintenance on the SETA Drive and engage the ships. Three of the ships Jump the sector when the Inquisitor arrives, but two remain. One open fires directly at the Titan ship, whilst the other continues to hassle the Station. Jackson orders three Comm attempts with the ship, but all are rejected. Finally, he orders the ship to be destroyed. The Inquisitor fires three Assault Lasers at the ship, blowing it to pieces. The final ship, realizing certain defeat, engages it's SETA drive and heads towards the Jumpgate leading to the Split Fire Sector. In order to stop the Pirate escaping, Jackson orders the use of their own SETA drive. However, incomplete repairs have left the drive unusable without a 98% chance of total ship molecular breakdown. Not wanting to put 1,000 crew members lives at stake to catch one Pirate, Jackson opens Comms with the Trading Station to inform them of the Pirates escape. However, the Security Officer tells him that the Pirate is planning to self destruct his ship as he passes through the Jumpgate - which could knock out the entire gate, and possibly every other gate in the known universe. Jackson returns to the bridge and orders the use of the SETA Drive to engage the Pirate. The Drive activates, and after 15 seconds of increased travel speed the two back turrets disintegrate. The SETA drive deactivates automatically to ensure safety, and the Pirate ship nears the gate. However, it doesn't enter - it rolls right and avoids it, turning to fly back toward the Inquisitor. It slows 4 kilometers from the Titan ship and opens Comms. The Pirate announces himself as Calaak Vaal, and pretends to surrender. As the ship prepares to dock inside the Inquisitor, it suddenly phases and vanishes. After a lengthy investigation, it appears that Vaal entered the Jumpgate at SETA Speed 10x, thereby slowing extremely quickly when he entered. This created a 'mirror image' or a 'lag image' of what would have happened, should he not have entered the gate. Vaal escapes, and is not seen for the rest of the book.